Different types of infrastructures

Jan Softa at Somerco Date 2014-03-10
Somerco, Suite 177, 372 Old street, EC1V 9LT London, UK. info@somerco.com
Enhance the competitiveness of the EC member states
Part 19 – Different types of infrastructure
Abstract
Throughout history new infrastructures has been added to the existing infrastructures. By dividing infrastructure into
different types I aim to highlight Europeans competitiveness in each of them. The infrastructures are bio-,
nanoscale-, space-, virtual- and traditional infrastructures. Europe’s possibilities to be forerunners and create and
have successful companies working in these infrastructures will be an important factor for our ability to prosper in
society and to create new jobs. Infrastructure matters.
Background
Helping geniuses! Our slogan sums up whom Somerco aims to help. Somerco are a company
that target to help researchers and innovators so that these geniuses can create prosperity and
jobs in society.
European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas, responsible for transport, said:
"Transport is vital to the European economy. Without good connections Europe will not grow or prosper. This new
EU infrastructure policy will put in place a powerful European transport network across 28 Member States to
promote growth and competitiveness. It will connect East with West and replace today’s transport patchwork with a
network that is genuinely European."1
Besides, the building of a genuinely European transport infrastructure there are other types of
infrastructure EU considers as vital for Europe. I highlight the importance of traditional
infrastructures, newer infrastructures and emerging infrastructures in order for Europe to have a
competitive industry. The infrastructures I discuss are divided into bio-, nanoscale-, space-,
virtual- and traditional infrastructures. Increasingly, these infrastructures are connected together.
Introduction
A key part of a functioning society is to build and maintain infrastructure. Throughout history
new infrastructures has been added to the existing infrastructures. Very early on mankind built
roads which benefited trade and the development of society. Later we built the infrastructure for
drainage systems which made the daily life for people easier and had the benefit to get healthier
inhabitants in society. Both these infrastructures are examples on traditional infrastructure.
A few decades ago we started to develop a virtual infrastructure that carry out a lot of task in
society as communicating by email, social media, but also uploading, downloading and
streaming of movies, online editing of texts and pictures. It lets us do business and science, play
online games and gamble with other people worldwide.
Early adopters of space technology are TV broadcasters and shipping. We find more and more
private companies as Thales Group and Virgin Galactic trying to service or explore space for
commercial purposes. We also find space infrastructure as International Space Station (ISS) in
orbit. It is deemed that infrastructure in space will become increasingly important for the future
society. For instance, China is interested in mining on the moon.
1
Transport: New EU infrastructure policy. http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-948_en.htm

A later development in technology is nanotechnology. It has provided us supermini devices in a
nanoscale size. Lately, increased efforts in research that enables different devices to interconnect
to each other and form infrastructures are being conducted.
Moreover, we also find R & D in bioscience being conducted that use man-made constructions
or reactions that imitate how nature functions that can be applied on infrastructure projects.
Structure
I start to discuss bio infrastructure, move on with nanoscale, next infrastructure discussed is
about space, the fourth is about virtual infrastructure and I end with traditional infrastructure.
Infrastructure- Bio
Bio infrastructure stem from bioengineering, biotechnology, biomimicry, synthetic biology etc
and it has the purpose of supporting or creating infrastructure based on how nature works.
Examples of bio-infrastructure are a handful of "green infrastructure" projects in Philadelphia,
New York, Washington, Portland and Seattle that have embarked on innovative stormwater
runoff fixes that rely not so much on the old“gray infrastructure”of huge, piped systems and
sewage treatment plants, but rather on new green infrastructure techniques to collect and treat
stormwater at the street level. It aims to tackle a widespread urban environment problem by
picking up contaminants that include bacteria, oil and grease, metals, pesticides, and many
others. When a rainstorm is big enough, the runoff causes overflows from outdated sewer
systems that combine both raw sewage and stormwater in a single pipe. This tide of pollutants
ends up in surrounding waterways that serve as drinking water sources and recreational areas.
Instead of one facility or large underground tank to store water when a big storm hits, the idea is
to eliminate the need for such storage through the use of green rooftops, roadside plantings,
carefully landscaped parks, rain gardens, rain barrels, and other swatches of nature dropped
down inside the landscape of modern cities.2
An emerging technology for how to create infrastructure is to use chemical or biological
processes that duplicates nature’s behaviour. Some of the more the explorative examples lay
more than fifteen years ahead. For instance, the construction of an artificial reef under Venice
that employs species of carbon-fixing protocell technology that is engineered to be light
sensitive.3
Protocells are a form of organic hardware that technically is not alive since they do
not possess any DNA. Yet they are capable of life-like behaviour that draws from the self-
organizing potential of their ingredient. This life-like behaviour of protocell technology could
create an artificial limestone reef under the foundation of the city of Venice. If it is something
that the citizens want and it is supported by the government and external funders, then this
greatly increases its likelihood of such technology.4
The bio-infrastructure with green infrastructure projects that helps society take care of vital
functions for society is interesting for companies to develop since it can be adopted everywhere.
2
To tackle polluted runoff, cities turn to 'green' strategies. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-
difference/Change-Agent/2013/0129/To-tackle-polluted-runoff-cities-turn-to-green-strategies
3
Essay: Self–Repairing Architecture http://www.nextnature.net/2010/06/self%E2%80%93repairing-architecture
4
Interview: Rachel Armstrong, Innovative Scientist Who Wants to Grow Architecture
http://www.nextnature.net/2013/07/interview-rachel-armstrong-innovative-scientist-who-wants-to-grow-
architecture/

Thereby it has a market with a huge growth potential. The construction companies who are early
adopters of knowledge in this technology and infrastructure will gain an exponentially advantage
against its competitors.
When it concern emerging bio-infrastructures as protocells for building infrastructure, companies
need to put in more resources to R & D and wait longer for their financial reward. In bioscience,
there are an increasing amount of patent applications (and also possibilities for open source
alternatives) of these newer technologies. Whether R & D in protocell technology for
infrastructure will be patented or open sourced lays much in the hands of the funders of these
projects. If it concern established private companies it is likely to be more patents applications.
Public funding of this technology gives possibilities for the funders to choose what path these
projects must pursue. There is the possibility to patent the research findings and publish the data
they find appropriate, open source the findings or let the receivers of the funding patent what
have value to them and let them open source the research leftovers.
Infrastructure - Nanoscale
Nanotechnology is now seen as a driving force for all major industries worldwide and as playing
an essential role in solving challenges in areas as energy, water, environment, health, information
management and security.5
Nanoscale infrastructure is based on advancements in science, engineering a technology at the
nanoscale. We currently find nanoscale devices being developed by nanotechnology in for
instance medicine and computer chips. More recently researchers have begun to research how
nanoscale devices can communicate with each other. Further ahead there is a need to explore
how these devices can be attached into supertiny infrastructures used by industry and society.
The supertiny infrastructure constitutes of a set of interconnected nanomachines, which are able
to perform only very simple tasks such as computing, data storing, sensing and actuation. The
capabilities of single nanomachines are expected to be expanded both in terms of complexity and
range of operation by allowing them to coordinate, share and fuse information. This progress
enables new applications of nanotechnology in the biomedical field, environmental research and
industrial and consumer goods applications.6
The so called “nano companies” has already proven its worth when it concern devices on the
nanoscale. The nanotechnology market is expected to expand to $48.9 billion by the year 2017.
This growth comes from more than electronics and computer chips. From forensics to plastics to
energy to health, the smallest size dimensions are becoming the most important features.
Nanotechnology is promising answers to many types of problems in all fields of work.7
As mentioned above, the nanotechnology market for devices is an expanding billion $ or €
market. However, the commercial maturity of nanoscale infrastructure is still in its infancy.
Almost all ready-to-use nanoscale infrastructures are ahead of us. For instance, quantum
computing with nanoscale infrastructure lies perhaps ten years ahead.8
Few commercial
companies can be used as examples with products of nanoscale infrastructure offered to
customers. The development phase of these infrastructures is still very much in the hands of
scientist. It is important to acknowledge this next step from devices into infrastructures on the
5
Developing the Human and Physical Infrastructure for Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Nanotechnology
Research Directions for Societal nEEds in 2020. Science Policy Reports. Volume 1, 2011, pp 501-560.
6
Nanonetwork. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanonetwork
7
What is the Nanoscience Classroom? http://www.nanoscience.com/applications/education/overview/
8
Quantum computing with nanoscale infrastructure. http://mina4-49.mc2.chalmers.se/~eurosqip/Tutorial.pdf

nanoscale. Once the technology for nanoscale infrastructure has matured the market will increase
rapidly as it did when nanoscale devices was ready to be offered to customers by companies.
Companies in the nano world who develops knowledge of the next step into offering nanoscale
infrastructure before others will have the possibilities for greater profit than its competitors. “The
nano economy” has already proven its huge potential. It is a progress that should affect European
companies in this sector to take the leap. Here EU could play an important role by discussing
their needs for making this leap from devices into infrastructure on the nanoscale and also ask
how the governmental sector can prepare society for this infrastructure revolution it could
become.
Infrastructure- Space
The infrastructure that supports space activity includes a variety of elements such as launch
vehicles, space stations, satellites, rovers, landers, ground facilities and scientific systems.9
Space
infrastructures will become an increasingly important business area to be competitive in as
mankind explore and exploit possibilities in our nearest space region. Especially, the end of
NASA’s Space Shuttle programme is leading to a private sector space revolution, with a host of
companies competing to provide space taxi services. Private sector innovation is rapidly
lowering the cost of getting cargo into space. These new companies have tapped into the private
wealth of billionaires and developed technological capabilities in GPS, horizontal launch to orbit
and autonomous rather than pilot-driven operation. And they have shown themselves to be far
more cost-sensitive than their government forebears.10
Thales group11
is one of the larger European actors in this sector. You also find examples, in the
new space economy that you can be small and succeed. The Isle of Man is an excellent example
of a small economy with a thriving space sector, with 30 of the 54 companies working on
satellites located on the island, and a cluster of companies handling the financing, insuring,
leasing and legal ramifications of space assets.12
However, there is a wish from EU, as discussed
in the ITRE Committee, to include more SMEs into the new European space economy.
For commercialization of resources in space to become a viable option for private companies
depends on its cost structure in comparison to commercialization of resources on earth. For
instance, mining scarce resources on the moon and Near Earth Objects could be the key to
commercial development that will become critical as we face future shortages. Rhenium —used
in fuel-efficient aircraft engines has a price over $11,000 kg, twelve times what it was just four
years ago. Reserves of indium, which is used in solar cells and LCDs, are forecast to run out
within ten years, and so is the hafnium we use in computer chips and nuclear control rods. Such
shortages and accompanying price increases can be the driver for space commercialization.
Another example is platinum that sell at close to $40,000 kg. A cost model exploring mining,
processing and shipping operations, comparing these to existing costs. The entire infrastructure
as operational over a twenty year period shows the cost of rare metals brought back to Earth at
about $2600 kg is ‘fairly lucrative’ given current costs, and while a flow of materials from the
9
The space report.
http://www.spacefoundation.org/sites/default/files/downloads/The_Space_Report_2013_overview.pdf AND
http://www.spacefoundation.org/programs/research-and-analysis/space-report/30-space-infrastructure
10
Infrastructure for Business. Space: Britain’s New Infrastructure Frontier.
http://www.iod.com/mainwebsite/resources/document/space-britains-new-infrastructure-frontier-may12.pdf
11
Space Infrastructure and Transportation. https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/content/space-infrastructure-and-
transportation
12

Moon will lower the price in combination of efficient use of rockets fossil fuels should leaving a
sizable potential for profit.13
If we are comparing to get space infrastructure into Low Earth Orbit the cost structure will be
even more favourable. In the early 1990s, surplus Russian and Chinese rockets increased
competition to American and European suppliers and brought down launch costs by a third.14
Table: Unlimited possibilities15
Cost per Kilo to Low Earth Orbit
Vehicle/Technology Years in operation Cost per kilo to LEO Technological Readiness
Level
Space shuttle 1981 – 2011 $ 18,000 - $60,000 N/A
ATLAS 2002 onwards $ 13,812 9
Ariane 5 2002 onwards $ 10,476 9
Falcon 9 2010 onwards $ 5,359 9
Proton Variants since 1965 $ 4,302 9
Falcon heavy 2013 onwards $ 1,000 - $ 2,204 6,5
Skylon 2021 onwards $ 1,000 5
Space elevator 2035 onwards $ 10 - $ 100 1
There are several benefits with a competitive space industry in Europe. A major benefit is that in
UK alone who has figures about £8 billion for the UK space sector it also employs around
25,000 people, supporting a further 60,000 jobs indirectly. It has more than doubled in size over
the last decade, and if job growth continues at the 15% rate of the last few years, employment in
the sector will reach 100,000 by 2020.16
13
http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=15633
14 The cost per kilo to Low Earth Orbit (LEO – from 100 to 1,240 miles up) is generally calculated by dividing the
estimated cost of a launch vehicle by its payload capacity.
15
Sources: Futron Corporation, various. NASA’s Technological Readiness Level is a method used to assess the
maturity of evolving technologies on a scale of 1-9 where 9 is ready and mature and 1 is at the very beginning of
Basic Technology Research. http://www.iod.com/mainwebsite/resources/document/space-britains-new-
infrastructure-frontier-may12.pdf
16

Infrastructure- Virtual
The virtual infrastructure constitutes of computer programming languages and cloud services. It
helps industry and people by digital means. Unlike the traditional infrastructure it is not possible
to feel and touch.
Since the virtual world entered society it has affected us immensely and we are increasingly
dependent on the virtual infrastructure. There are an enormous amount of services societies rely
on that are based on the virtual infrastructure. It could be said that the virtual infrastructure is a
determinate for a modern society to blossom. Therefore, two issues are important for a
prosperous society: it is vital to protect the virtual infrastructure and to have competitive IT
companies both as innovative and also in size by large turnovers.
Due to societies increased dependence on virtual services it is important to have some European
companies that can be drivers in developing an efficient virtual infrastructure. Both in the current
programming languages and cloud services as well as future programming languages and their
services. It is important to have a focus on the future because it will change how we are
programming, the amount of information we can send when we communicate, we use when we
analyse, the amount we can store and how we can protect information.
With companies customers opting for cloud services rather than having their software on their
PC, MAC etc our dependency of others increases for how the virtual infrastructure is managed.
An important part of the virtual infrastructure we find in companies offering cloud solutions as
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to customers. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is one of the
three fundamental service models of cloud computing alongside Platform as a Service (PaaS)
and Software as a Service (SaaS). As with all cloud computing services it provides access to
computing resource in a virtualised environment, “the Cloud”, across a public connection,
usually the internet. In the case of IaaS the computing resource provided is specifically that of
virtualised hardware. It includes such offerings as virtual server space, network connections,
bandwidth, IP addresses and load balancers. Physically, the pool of hardware resource is pulled
from a multitude of servers and networks usually distributed across numerous data centers, all of
which the cloud provider is responsible for maintaining. The client, on the other hand, is given
access to the virtualised components in order to build their own IT platforms.17
For Europe, to be able to own and control a large portion of the virtual infrastructure is both
lucrative and strategically important. If we focus on those companies offering cloud computing
only one European company qualified in at the top ten in 2012. It was the UK company VMware
on the tenth place.18
As it is today, the giants on the market for cloud computing originates from
US. Besides could computing, it can be concluded that few European companies with a tradition
from the computer sector are big players for the virtual infrastructure. The largest companies
with this tradition are from the US. When it concern companies with a background in the mobile
industry Europe has companies as Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Nokia that provides virtual
software solutions. For instance, Alcatel-Lucent is delivering a portfolio of virtualized mobile
network function applications19
and the same is the other. It can be concluded that Europe are not
forerunners but has a good position to gain market shares in a rapidly developing market. More
due to its mobile companies than its computer companies if we consider these companies to have
financial resources to scale up quickly.
17
What is IaaS? http://www.interoute.com/what-iaas
18
Top 10 cloud computing providers of 2012.
http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/photostory/2240149049/Top-10-cloud-providers-of-2012/11/1-
Amazon-Web-Services#contentCompress
19
Alcatel-Lucent delivers suite of virtualized network functions, ushering in the next phase of mobile ultra-
broadband for service providers. http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/press/2014/alcatel-lucent-delivers-suite-virtualized-
network-functions-ushering-next-phase-mobile

Infrastructure- Traditional
Investments in the traditional infrastructure are very important in order to create conditions for
companies to be competitive and for a well-functioning society.
Recently, EU has made an effort to interlink and create a genuinely European network for
transport – the new core TEN-T (Trans-European Transport Network). The core network will
connect: (1) 94 main European ports with rail and road links, (2) 38 key airports with rail
connections into major cities, (3) 15,000 km of railway line upgraded to high speed and (4) 35
cross-border projects to reduce bottlenecks.20
A second example you find in the Digital Agenda with the aim that every European should have
access to basic broadband by 2013 and fast and ultra-fast broadband by 2020. In September
2010, the Commission outlined the steps it and Member States can take to help trigger the €180
to€270 billion of investment required to bring fast broadband to all households by 2020. As
Europe modernises, common architectures for digital services will support increasingly mobile
citizens, enable the emergence of the digital single market, stimulate growth of cross-border
services, and to reduce transactions costs for enterprises, in particular SMEs in search of growth
opportunities beyond their home markets.21
A third important part of traditional infrastructure development concern energy. The EU aims to
make sure that strategic energy networks and storage facilities are completed by 2020. It
concerns energy production, transmission and storage. Modern energy infrastructure is crucial
for an integrated energy market and to enable the EU to meet its broader climate and energy
goals. Europe must modernise and expand its energy network to absorb energy from renewable
sources and ensure secure supplies everywhere. It also needs smart grids to save energy and
better manage the network. The Commission has identified 12 priority corridors and areas for
electricity, gas, oil and CO2transport networks, and is promoting projects to implement them.22
There is a vast amount of EU funded traditional infrastructure projects to be found as well as
nationally funded by the governmental sector. EU has good knowledge about this infrastructure.
In the Commission we find several relevant Vice-President that work with infrastructure. There
is infrastructure for transport, infrastructure for energy and the digital infrastructure. Also at the
Parliaments TRAN and ITRE committees there is much knowledge about this sector.
Infrastructure matters
By lifting forward the different types of infrastructure companies do business in and society’s
dependency on these it is evident it is of utmost importance for Europe to be as competitive as
possible in these.
Discussing bio-infrastructure there is a need for construction companies to gain knowledge in
these technologies for their future construction projects. For those, who are interested in potential
future upcoming bio-infrastructures there are investments in R & D to put funding into before the
financial returns come. Early knowledge in these will help companies remain competitive
whether it is through holding patents or using just using the knowledge. Especially, since EU in
Horizon 2020 is pushing the EU –zone towards environmental friendly alternatives into society.
20
Infrastructure - TEN-T. http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/infrastructure/news/ep-backs-new-eu-infrastructure-
policy_en.htm
21
EC “Budget for Europe 2020″–Infrastructure“Connecting Europe” facility. http://www.policies.eu.org/?cat=38
22
Energy infrastructure. What do we want to achieve? http://ec.europa.eu/energy/infrastructure/index_en.htm

When it concern nanoscale infrastructure it is in a scientific phase and companies are not yet
offering these products to customers. I believe this market will have its breakthrough in a not so
distant future since there are several very successful companies already offering products in a
device form on the nanoscale. It will be a new kind of infrastructure for us to relate to and adopt
into our society. It is important EU discuss how we can support this development and perhaps
take the lead.
Even if US space program has drastically decreased its budget the European space companies is
one of those industry sectors that are thriving. When the latest recession hit the European
companies working in the space sector still grew very well. It shows Europe has competitive
companies that offer products at good prices. There is a clear interest in exploring space for
mining so to have European companies building space infrastructure will help us create jobs and
have companies in a rapid growing industry sector.
The virtual infrastructure is one of the key infrastructures that it is difficult for a modern society
to manage without. Therefore, it is sensible EU is very focused on increasing their efforts for this
sector. For instance, EU has developed its roadmap Digital 2020 that has as one of its aims to
have more successful ICT companies. There are plenty of European companies in this industry
sector. The most successful we find comes from a background in the mobile technology sector.
However, there are few European companies with a background from the software industry that
can match their size and even less the US software companies. Also Chinese, Indian, Japanese
and South Korean are ahead of Europe. It is important to have companies from both these
backgrounds. It will help us engage in R & D projects together and later offer virtual
infrastructure to competitive prices on a global level.
Traditional infrastructure is on the EU agenda since it is important for the functioning of modern
day society. Therefore, there are plenty of examples of EU funded infrastructure projects. There
are a vast amount of European companies that are successful by offering their services to these
projects and other governmental projects. SKANSKA is an example of these companies with
presence on almost a global level. It is the most mature market of the examples discussed in this
paper and employs more people than any of the other sectors discussed. It proves it is an
important sector for Europe to remain competitive in.
EUs Vice-Presidents for transport, for the Digital Agenda; for Industry and Research and for
Energy should discuss these types of infrastructures on its agenda and cooperate with others to
put forward policy's that benefit companies in these sectors. Cooperation is necessary since often
there is a dependency between these infrastructures. For instance, when it concerns the virtual
infrastructure there is cooperation with the Vice-Presidents for the Digital Agenda and Industry
and Research and the private sector. When it concern the emerging nanoscale infrastructure there
should be much cooperation with the private sector and the directorates responsible for working
with biotechnology, biomimicry and so on.

Draft proposals
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 1 - Designated tax to science
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 2 – Strategy to support the software industry
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 3 – Actions to support women in ICT
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 4 – Going abroad–Competitive assets
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 5 – Business incubators, financial recycling and incentives
into reward
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 6 – Standardization as a tool to increase competitiveness
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 7 – Different types of innovations
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 8 – Open source from science to society
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 9 – Crowd sourcing and crowd funding
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 10 – Green VAT for business
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 11 - Keep talents in Europe
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 12 - Research leftovers
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 13 - Science Parks-Specializations
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 14 - Patent trolls
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 15 – Science e-Parks
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 16 – Expansion options (In progress)
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 17 – The locally developed infrastructure.
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 18 – Treaty (Knowledge transfer)
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 19 – Different types of infrastructure
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 20 – Build infrastructure (In progress)
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 21 – Your small energy infrastructure (elsewhere) (In
progress)
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Part 22 – Quick market entry (Medical) (In progress)
Enhance the competitiveness of EC member states Overview – Old and new key areas in order to increase the
competitiveness of the industry (In progress)
Input on threats against information society

Different types of infrastructures

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